How long can get away with using windows 7?

[Packing an i5]

I only use a computer for some select few games most of them old except for Wow which is old but updated somewhat frequently.

I also use it for email, basic internet browsing that's it. I recently upgraded to a newer GPU and a solid state drive as my main disk but I am still using Windows 7.

Yes im one of those people concerned over privacy violations with 10 that is why I have not upgraded. In fact before using 10 id be more inclined to purchase a copy of windows 7 professional or ultimate which support 2 cpus and 128 Gbs of Ram.

Of course the most severe limitations of my SP1 Windows 7 Home premium copy is that it only supports 16 gb of ram. My motherboard supports 32 and that it will not support Directx12.

My biggest concern is when microsoft stops doing security updates for 7 but that won't be until what 2020? We're 4 years away from that and many people continue to use XP despite security risks and being limited to 4 gbs of Ram.

I really like 7 I don't want to upgrade. Even if I built a new system within the next 4 years id consider buying W7 Proffessional or ultimate if I could fine one marked down.

[Gib Lover]

You answered your own question. You are safe to use it until at the least 2020.

[Packing an i5]

You answered your own question. You are safe to use it until at the least 2020.

yes however ultimate and professional are supported beyond 2020 and support 2 cpus and 128 gb of ram. A pc with that much ram even half of that and 2 cpus running at least 3.0 ghz could run any game on the market right now and many games beyond 2016.

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[Legevia]

Windows XP is also at least for business that are smart limiting the use of it or they have paid Microsoft a lot of money to continue to support and patch them on it despite it being passed their normal end of support. I am about to start a new job on Monday and they have a few things that still run on Windows XP too but those are running on VM on a server that has no access to the internet for good reason. My question would be if you use your computer for such few things why are you concerned about the privacy violations in 10? Are you doing something illegal on the machine also. I ask because look at how much information places like Google know about you from your web searches or your browsing history or how much information websites you go to collect about you.

[Gib Lover]

You are making no sense. You say "Yes however," and then list reasons why you can continue using 7.
So keep using 7.

[Deleted]

Only reason to switch for gamers would be DirectX12. Seeing, however, how extremely content I am with Windows 7, I don't see myself switching, even with games that support DX12 coming out. The most important question is probably: Would you switch for a game or multiple games that ONLY support DX12, hence are not compatible with 7? I thoroughly hope that by the time this is the case, they will have addressed most issues, those being (for me) privacy "violations" and especially installing newer drivers without one's permission or even conscience. I don't need an OS to install drivers for me, especially not when it replaces working ones with broken releases.

[Triginhil]

If you're tech savvy u can disable all the "monitoring" and "spying" windows 10 offers. That's what I did. Seriously though, theres nothing you do on your computer that other people don't already know. Even visiting your secure banking website, that info has gone somewhere and if someone wants to do damage to you by stealing it, it'll happen one way or another.

[Gorgodeus]

Your W7 is doing the same thing that W10 does, as far as privacy goes. They patched it in during your Windows updates. Driver updates can also be disabled to where you can control what drivers are updated, and what is not in W10.

[Lathais]

There is no good reason not to upgrade while it is still free. All the privacy concerns and whatnot people have about 10, exist in all previous versions of Windows that are still supported now. If you want to avoid these things that are really no big deal you will need to drop back to XP.

[Ghostpanther]

Windows XP is also at least for business that are smart limiting the use of it or they have paid Microsoft a lot of money to continue to support and patch them on it despite it being passed their normal end of support. I am about to start a new job on Monday and they have a few things that still run on Windows XP too but those are running on VM on a server that has no access to the internet for good reason. My question would be if you use your computer for such few things why are you concerned about the privacy violations in 10? Are you doing something illegal on the machine also. I ask because look at how much information places like Google know about you from your web searches or your browsing history or how much information websites you go to collect about you.

It is not about doing something illegal. It is about how we want to use our computers ( in lawful ways. ) is none of their damn business if I choose for them not to know. Automatic updates, I want to choose when I do them and how often. So removing the option to turn it off sent up a red flag for me among other things. Sure eventually I will have to upgrade, but hopefully by then they will have learned what their customers want and give them more control with their systems.

[Lathais]

It is not about doing something illegal. It is about how we want to use our computers ( in lawful ways. ) is none of their damn business if I choose for them not to know. Automatic updates, I want to choose when I do them and how often. So removing the option to turn it off sent up a red flag for me among other things. Sure eventually I will have to upgrade, but hopefully by then they will have learned what their customers want and give them more control with their systems.

As far as them wanting to know how you use your computer and what you use it for, that is only to help you. The data is collected anonymously, so they don't know or care -who- was using Windows that way, just that it was being used that way so that they can improve the windows experience for everyone. You know, the same exact thing google does all the time and you have little control over it. The same thing your ISP does and you have little control over it. The same thing just about any website you go to does and you can do nothing about it. The same thing online games that you play do and you can do nothing about it. Why is it a big deal when it's Microsoft that wants to do it? It -is- their business to know, because you are using their software to do it and they want to improve that experience and/or prevent you from using their software to do illegal things. Again, it's anonymous, so it's not like they want to go after you, they just want to know how to fix their software to prevent people from doing illegal things.

As far as automatic updates, this is partially due to wanting to keep your system safe so you can not blame them when something goes wrong but it is also selfish of them. It is far easier to offer support to end users when everyone is on the same page. It's really so that they can make sure you are better protected and that they can help you easier if you ever need help.

The simple fact of the matter that most people can not get over is that the data is anonymous and Microsoft couldn't give two fucks about you personally.

[Denpepe]

yes however ultimate and professional are supported beyond 2020 and support 2 cpus and 128 gb of ram. A pc with that much ram even half of that and 2 cpus running at least 3.0 ghz could run any game on the market right now and many games beyond 2016.

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For now and probably the foreseeable future you wont need more then 8 to 16 GB of ram and certainly not more then 1 CPU for gaming and browsing the internet, not even sure there are games that can run on more then 1 CPU (and by that I mean physical CPU's, not cores on one CPU).

I still find it strange gamers are all about getting the most out of their hardware and constantly upgrade their PC's to keep up with games but when it comes to an OS they stick to old obsolete stuff like their life depends on it.

Think about this if there are 100+ million PC's using win 10 how much people do you think Microsoft would need to check each and every file on each pc to see what it is, if it is legit etc..

As Lathais said, Microsoft does not care about the nudy pics of your significant other or a pirated game, they just gather some anonymous data to improve how their OS works just like tons of other companies do, even stores check what you buy and send you personalised brochures, you are not the center of Microsofts attention, just a tiny bit of data amongst a massive amount.

[Vash The Stampede]

You can use Windows 7 forever so long as you keep it secure. But you probably wouldn't want to because Windows 10 has DX12 and that's a desirable feature. At some point Windows 7 lack of support will break down some applications and you'll want to move onto Windows 10 anyway.

Also if security was a serious concern then you'd move onto Linux.

[blackblade]

You can use Windows 7 forever so long as you keep it secure. But you probably wouldn't want to because Windows 10 has DX12 and that's a desirable feature. At some point Windows 7 lack of support will break down some applications and you'll want to move onto Windows 10 anyway.

Also if security was a serious concern then you'd move onto Linux.

Drivers for new hardware will also become a concern.

There's also the caveat that window 10 will not remain a free upgrade forever. (July 29th is the last day)

[ComputerNerd]

As far as them wanting to know how you use your computer and what you use it for, that is only to help you. The data is collected anonymously, so they don't know or care -who- was using Windows that way, just that it was being used that way so that they can improve the windows experience for everyone. You know, the same exact thing google does all the time and you have little control over it. The same thing your ISP does and you have little control over it. The same thing just about any website you go to does and you can do nothing about it. The same thing online games that you play do and you can do nothing about it. Why is it a big deal when it's Microsoft that wants to do it? It -is- their business to know, because you are using their software to do it and they want to improve that experience and/or prevent you from using their software to do illegal things. Again, it's anonymous, so it's not like they want to go after you, they just want to know how to fix their software to prevent people from doing illegal things.

As far as automatic updates, this is partially due to wanting to keep your system safe so you can not blame them when something goes wrong but it is also selfish of them. It is far easier to offer support to end users when everyone is on the same page. It's really so that they can make sure you are better protected and that they can help you easier if you ever need help.

The simple fact of the matter that most people can not get over is that the data is anonymous and Microsoft couldn't give two fucks about you personally.

MS have once before claimed that "telemetry" told them certain things, and that resulted in shoving the start screen down the throats of the customers.
Look what happened there.
Telemetry is flawed, vocal opinions proved far more telling.

Nothing about it has been proven to be useful, and their refusal to speak in detail as to what it actually is should speak volumes.

The fact of the matter is you are sticking your head in the sand, because we cannot say without knowing exactly what it is, if it is going to help us or not.

Low Bandwidth/Shared Connections, Lack of proper control over restarts, waiting to see if issues come up before accepting an update (reboot loops etc).
There are plenty of reasons for users to have control over updates.

[MrHappy]

you have 2 points of time when you need to upgrade

1) when you want to do skylake build (unless you going to use AMD cpu's ...that is until they also decide to not support 7 fully)
2) 2020 when Microsoft pulls the plug on win 7

Personally I was using it since technical alpha and i love it. This resistance to upgrading is pointless. The whole thing of "spying" honestly is overblown. Google tracks you more than win 10 and we are quite happy when relevant searches, adds, videos pop up and we go "ooh useful". Nowdays on android if you call a business it will even tell you their opening hours and how far away it is from your current location and give you option to nav to it. We post on social media what we ate/where we been/what we do/what we think about every day if not every minute...so it's odd when MS or Google give you more options to make your life easier....but i digresss

tl;dr just upgrade and be done with it

[Lathais]

MS have once before claimed that "telemetry" told them certain things, and that resulted in shoving the start screen down the throats of the customers.
Look what happened there.
Telemetry is flawed, vocal opinions proved far more telling.

Nothing about it has been proven to be useful, and their refusal to speak in detail as to what it actually is should speak volumes.

The fact of the matter is you are sticking your head in the sand, because we cannot say without knowing exactly what it is, if it is going to help us or not.

Low Bandwidth/Shared Connections, Lack of proper control over restarts, waiting to see if issues come up before accepting an update (reboot loops etc).
There are plenty of reasons for users to have control over updates.

The thing is, vocal opinions are not far more telling. We hear the vocal minority, we do not see the telemetry. People who are happy do not generally complain or say anything at all. Works the same way in MMOs. You go to the forums and se all hell breaking loose over some change and tons and tons of people complaining about it. Then you go in game and ask your guild how they feel about it, 95% of the people are ok with the change or like it. You can not listen to the vocal minority.

As far as users having control over updates, if you -need- control over your updates, you'll know it and will have a Pro version in which you have that control. pretty simple.

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you have 2 points of time when you need to upgrade

1) when you want to do skylake build (unless you going to use AMD cpu's ...that is until they also decide to not support 7 fully)
2) 2020 when Microsoft pulls the plug on win 7

Personally I was using it since technical alpha and i love it. This resistance to upgrading is pointless. The whole thing of "spying" honestly is overblown. Google tracks you more than win 10 and we are quite happy when relevant searches, adds, videos pop up and we go "ooh useful". Nowdays on android if you call a business it will even tell you their opening hours and how far away it is from your current location and give you option to nav to it. We post on social media what we ate/where we been/what we do/what we think about every day if not every minute...so it's odd when MS or Google give you more options to make your life easier....but i digresss

tl;dr just upgrade and be done with it

Point one is just not true though. Just because Microsoft will not offer support for it does not mean it will not work. It works just fine. Support in this case means customer service. It will work just fine, but if you do happen to have any issues, Microsoft will not help you fix them. However, I know several people that bought Skylake CPUs and are still running W7 just fine.

For the second point, when Microsoft pulls the plug on W7, it will still work. It's not just gonna cease functioning. It will not delete itself. It will still work, just like XP still works. You'll be more vulnerable since you'll no longer be getting security updates, but it will still work and you will not have to upgrade.

The only thing I can really foresee that would be an absolute must upgrade is if something comes out like a game you want to play that does not have support for DX11 and only supports DX12. Then you have to upgrade, but only if you want to play the game. You still have the choice to not play the game.

In short, no, at no point in time will you ever -have- to upgrade to W10 if you do not want to.

All that said, there is still not really a good reason to not upgrade to W10.

[Vash The Stampede]

Drivers for new hardware will also become a concern.

There's also the caveat that window 10 will not remain a free upgrade forever. (July 29th is the last day)

At this point Windows 10 has done well enough that after July 29th you'll likely have to pay for it. If the adoption rate was lower then Microsoft would probably give it away. They obviously don't want to which is probably why some people are walking home and getting a Windows 10 surprise when they had Windows 7/8.

[moremana]

You tin foil hat wearers do know your ISP and web browser companies know more about you than Microsoft right?

[DonJuan]

Am still using XP now. So Win 7 should last long too.